winnow means that which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain. It carries an Arena rating of 1863, earned across 27 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, winnow ranks #42 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #406 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #884 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #933 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
winnow is pronounced /ˈwɪnoʊ/.
Why “winnow” is a great word
To separate the valuable from the worthless by the action of air, traditionally to lift chaff from grain, or figuratively, to refine a mass by removing its least substantial parts. From Middle English wyndwen, from Old English windwian ("to winnow, fan, ventilate"), from Proto-Germanic *windwōną ("to winnow"), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *wē- ("to blow, winnow"). Unlike "sift," which sorts by size through a mesh, or "whittle," which pares down a solid core by carving, to winnow employs the invisible, elemental force of air as a judge of weight and worth. It is the ancient, rhythmic toss of the basket that lets the wind take the husks, the editor discarding weak arguments from a draft, the slow process of grief that lifts memory from pain—a reminder that what is essential survives by its own gravity, once the air has cleared.
Etymology
From Middle English wyndwen, from Old English windwian (“to winnow, fan, ventilate”), from Proto-West Germanic *windwōn, from Proto-Germanic *windwōną, *winþijaną (“to throw about, winnow”), from Proto-Indo-European *wē- (“to winnow, thresh”). Cognate with West Frisian wynje (“to winnow”), dialectal Dutch winden, winnen (“to winnow”), Middle High German winden (“to winnow”), Icelandic vinsa (“to pick out, weed”), Latin vannus (“a winnowing basket”). See fan, van.
noun
- That which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.
- The act of winnowing
verb
- To subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.e.g.“By Jacob Behel, of Mifflintown, Pa.,—Improvement in winnowing Machines, Patented August 21, 1847.” — 1847, editorial staff, “Winnowing Machines”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68:
- To separate, sift, analyse, or test by separating items having different values.e.g.“They winnowed the field to twelve.”
- To blow upon or toss about by blowing; to set in motion as with a fan or wings.e.g.“The light snow lay on the narrow and winding path before them, pure as if just fresh winnowed by the wind.” — 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 206:
- To move about with a flapping motion, as of wings; to flutter.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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